A Word from the Wise April 26, 2025 To us Democrats . . . How Four Democrats Who Saved the Party Before Would Do It Again Worth everyone’s time. BONUS QUOTE (Thanks, as always, Tony Seton): No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse. … Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities in condition create discontent and strain the democratic relation. The vicious are the willing, and the ignorant are unconscious instruments of political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses. … The peril of this nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope! – Charles Evans Hughes, 1909 Join Indivisible! Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · Mobilize
The Huge, Crucial Difference Between Neville Chamberlain And Donald Trump April 24, 2025 You don’t have to read this one (though it’s spot on): Trump’s Plan to Sell Out Ukraine to Russia — “His proposal to end the war isn’t a peace plan—it’s a reward for aggression.” But you do have to read this one: Ukraine’s fate echoes Czechoslovakia’s in Chamberlain’s appeasement In September 1938 . . . Adolf Hitler had massed hundreds of thousands of troops on the border of Czechoslovakia to reinforce a low-intensity war designed to force Prague to cede the Sudetanland. In an effort to preclude great power war, Chamberlain, in collusion with France and Italy, forced Prague to sign the Munich Agreement which provided for Hitler’s annexation of that territory. Chamberlain returned to London declaring the achievement of “peace for our time.” The reality was that instead Munich catalyzed the dynamics that unleashed World War II. Today, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and President Donald Trump’s approach to ending that unjustified attack echoes eerily . . . Chamberlain’s mistaken response to violent aggression. Trump risks becoming Neville Chamberlain to Putin’s Hitler. The huge difference being that — unlike Chamberlain — Trump likes autocrats, has no problem seeing democracy die, would kinda like to maybe do a little annexation of his own. So that in his third term* — who knows? — maybe he rules Canada and Greenland, too. The author, Ian J. Brzezinski, continues: . . . Like Hitler in 1938, Putin presents Russia as a country unfairly treated by history and, like Hitler, he is determined to reconstitute its great power status through territorial expansion. The central focus of this imperial campaign is Ukraine, which he falsely asserts is “not a real country” but rather an off-shoot of Russian culture and history. Hitler likewise asserted to Chamberlain that Czechoslovakia was not a real nation. Both Hitler and Putin conducted aggressive campaigns of subterfuge and violence to weaken their targets. Each accused Prague and Kyiv, respectively, of extremist actions against German and Russian minorities, respectively. Worth reading in full. If time permits, watch Trump will pay a ‘heavy political price’ if he abandons Ukraine, Wall Street Journal editorial board warns, where Brzezinski likens the situation also to handing Eastern Europe to Stalin at Yalta. *Steve Bannon on Bill Maher: “On the afternoon of January 20th of 2029 he’s going to be President of the United States.”
Putin Yourself In His Shoes April 23, 2025 But first . . . PEARL Michael G. (another of my classmates, this one, I’m happy to say, alive and thriving): I just read your post and Jesse’s wonderful obituary of his mother Pearl. What a talent. He is missed. In return may I commend Mo’s novel Scarpia’s Kiss. If you haven’t read it, you have a treat in store. When Mo asked if I could help him get it published, I was skeptical as you could imagine. But then I read it and was blown away. PUTS The market rebounded yesterday and may rebound lots more when Trump starts declaring victory with trade deals that perhaps even lower reciprocal tariffs. That would help lower inflation rather than raise it (though not incentivize corporations to move manufacturing jobs to the U.S.) — which he could say was his master plan all along. The market would likely rebound further, the recession (or global depression) might be averted, and our puts could well expire worthless. NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME HAPPIER. But I will probably buy more if the rebound continues. PROTESTS Rachel Maddow — almost always worth the watch — reviewed dozens of this past Saturday’s protests (14 minutes), which serves two purposes: > She pumps us up! We are not alone! We are making our voices heard! The media are beginning to notice! It’s encouraging! You may want to join the next one! (Thursday, May 1. Here’s a map of the ones that have been organized so far. Here’s how to organize one of your own.) But also, by highlighting many of the creative signs . . . > She reminds us of the outrageous, unAmerican, things the Trump/Musk Administration are doing that are causing irreparable harm. This is not normal! Join Indivisible! Democracy, once lost, is incredibly hard to restore. Global depression, once set in motion (see: Smoot-Hawley), causes almost unthinkable suffering — and is awfully difficult to dig back out of. The ship of state needs rescuing. Mayday! Mayday! Watch! PUTIN This is everything he could have dreamed of. America tearing itself apart, declaring trade war on its allies and everyone else except Russia, installing a Fox Weekend News host with a drinking problem to head the Defense Department, disbanding the teams tasked with combating Russian cyber aggression, degrading its ability to fight disease, attacking its globally admired colleges and universities, politicizing the Justice Department and the FBI, surrendering its “soft power” . . . . . . taking a wrecking ball to our flawed but indispensable 250-year experiment with democracy, the rule of law, and “due process.” Putin and his fellow kleptocrats are in seventh heaven.
R.I.P. Francis, Mo, Jesse, and Pearl April 21, 2025 Too many people are dying. Pope Francis was the best pope ever, embodying what this atheist’s reading of the New Testament takes to be the true teachings of Christ — teachings we all should aspire to live by. What a contrast with his last official visitor . . . (“Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, attacked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in January for assisting immigrants, saying their concerns about the Trump administration were due to the fear of losing federal funding.”) . . . or with our Two Corinthians President, a stable genius who throws rolls of paper towels to the needy, whose Easter message read: Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten! Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America. He was, by far, our WORST and most Incompetent President, a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing — But to him, and to the person that ran and manipulated the Auto Pen (perhaps our REAL President!), and to all of the people who CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election in order to get this highly destructive Moron Elected, I wish you, with great love, sincerity, and a very happy Easter!!! Needless to say, I never met the Pope. But my brother-in-law-had-marriage-been-legal the priest met His Holiness on multiple occasions, so I’m delighted to think that I came within just one degree of separation from this wonderful man. Two other wonderful men we lost this month, days apart, were my college classmates: Stephen “Mo” Hanan was a tremendously talented actor/singer/everything. One of the privileges of charging no subscription fee for these posts is that I get to do self-indulgent things like telling you, who never knew him, that he will be missed. “Attention must be paid,” as it were . . . though Mo was far more “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” than “Death of a Salesman.” (“Stephen Mo Hanan sparkles as Pseudolous, the freedom-craving slave. His comic timing is impeccable,” raved the Fort Myers paper, “and he literally throws himself into the role, rolling about on the stage. His rubber face expresses delight, shock, dismay, lust, fear and all other shades of emotion in-between.”) Jesse Kornbluth was a spectacular friend whose passing made the New York Times: Jesse Kornbluth, Magazine Writer Who Covered Everything, Dies at 79. Kudos to Penelope Green, who never knew Jesse, for bringing him to life beautifully. And then — if you enjoy great writing — there’s the obit Jesse wrote for his mother Pearl. I never knew Pearl, but now I do. Rest in peace, one and all. Every day is a gift.
Exactly Backwards April 21, 2025 The way to cut the deficit is to (drumroll, please) INCREASE REVENUE and DECREASE SPENDING. (Duh.) The way to INCREASE REVENUE is to let the tax cuts for corporations and on personal income above $400,000 expire . . . and to fully fund the IRS to make sure people and corporations pay what they owe. (Not only would the IRS collect more revenue from delinquent auditees; it would also collect more from those it didn’t audit once word got around there was a real risk of penalties for underpayment.) –> INSTEAD, Trump and his cowed Republican senators have it exactly backwards: working to renew tax cuts for those who don’t need them . . . and to further cripple the IRS. It’s insane. On top of that, the unnecessary recession their tariffs are gliding us into — or possibly worse, if Smoot-Hawley is any guide — will cut tax revenues while raising safety-net outflows . . . thus worsening our deficits. The way to DECREASE SPENDING is not to decimate the government, allow children starve and disease to spread. It is to lower interest rates. (We spend hundreds of billions more on interest than on defense; a trillion more than on the global soft-power and moral high ground USAID provided us.) And the way to lower interest rates is to lower inflation (which Biden handed off to Trump at just a hair over the Fed’s 2% target). –> INSTEAD, Trump and his cowed Republican senators have it exactly backwards: raising inflation by imposing tariffs and by shrinking the labor supply through mass deportation. Meanwhile, the Trump team argue that cutting corporate taxes will create jobs. My brilliant friend Simon Yates, to whose new Substack I’ve just subscribed, explains why that’s wrong: Does Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate Create Investment? Probably not. As the Republicans discuss tax cuts an argument that’s inevitably going to appear is that cutting the tax rate for corporations will create economic growth, and jobs. The argument goes like this: If a company is considering doing ‘Thing A’ (let’s say, building a factory), then it will compare the financials of Thing A against some hurdle rate for investments, X. If Thing A does better than X, then do it. Otherwise not. Hence, if the tax rate is lower, Thing A will have better financials and a greater chance of beating the hurdle rate X. More factories will be built and more jobs created. The problem with this argument is that this isn’t really how companies make decisions. They don’t face absolute, binary decisions like “should we do Thing A or not?” but instead relative decisions like “should we do Thing A or Thing B?”. Thing B might be a very simple alternative like leaving the money in the bank. If the corporate tax rate drops, then this is also more attractive. The company will pay less tax on the interest it earns. So Thing A doesn’t gain any relative advantage. The factory isn’t more likely to be built. What is clear about reducing the corporate tax rate is that less money will go to the government and more will go to shareholders. For somebody like me who’s lucky to be affluent and a shareholder — hey, that’s nice, thank you! But for workers who are looking for a job, beware. The people making this argument don’t have your interests at heart. Join Indivisible. Don’t sell your puts. Have a great week.
David Brooks: MUST READ April 19, 2025April 19, 2025 What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal. In the beginning there was agony. Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must. But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short. Trumpism is threatening all of that. It is primarily about the acquisition of power — power for its own sake. It is a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed. Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice. . . . We’re seeing an assault on the fundamental institutions of our civic life, things we should all swear loyalty to — Democrat, independent or Republican. It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power. So worth reading in full. Join Indivisible!
Holy Cow. Talk About Speaking Truth To Power! April 17, 2025 If you haven’t already seen it, this was last week’s opening TED Talk, by Carole Cadwalladr. Wow. Wow. Wow. Join Indivisible.
Gold And Frozen Vegetables April 16, 2025 “We’re going to get the prices down. Groceries, cars, everything. While working Americans catch up, we are going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates at 10%.” — Candidate Trump, September 29, 2024 It was smart to say this, because if he had said we’d get higher prices and a recession . . . falling 401k’s and a possible depression . . . pardoned January 6 cop beaters and a cut-off of aid to starving children . . . and an alcohol-challenged Fox Weekend News host heading the Pentagon — fewer people might have voted for him. (Not to mention chaos at Social Security, “disappearing” people without due process, and so many likely violations of the Emoluments Clause it’s clear he doesn’t take seriously his oath of office.) But he’s there now and already has his eye on a third term. It’s beginning to seem a bit monarchical. Speaking of which . . . How Trump and His ‘Gold Guy’ Are Redecorating the White House The president is making the world’s most famous residence more like Mar-a-Lago, his gilded Florida club The Government Publishing Office, which prints the official presidential portraits that hang in hundreds of federal buildings, received an unusual request from the White House last month. President Trump wanted his portrait to glimmer. The White House asked that Trump’s portrait, along with Vice President’s JD Vance’s, be printed with a golden border that would catch the light, an administration official said. The reprint required metallic gold ink and a specialized printer. And it delayed the completion of the portraits, some of which had already been printed with a more understated white border, according to an internal government document outlining the request. . . . Way to root out waste and abuse, boys! (Another nice touch — skewing more dictatorial than monarchical — would be the $100 million military parade being considered for his birthday.) FOOD NEWS Too Good To Go: End Food Waste! Too Good To Go makes it easy to make a positive impact on the planet while saving money on your favourite foods. That’s why it’s been named as Winner in the ‘2023 Cultural Impact’ category at the prestigious annual Apple App Store Awards. With the #1 app for reducing food waste, you can save tasty unsold snacks, takeaway meals and ingredients straight from shops, cafes, grocery stores and restaurants in your area – all at an unbeatable price. Lifehacker’s “New Favorite Way to Get Takeout.” How did I now know about this??? And wait! How did I not know about this??? 3 Reasons to Love Frozen Fruit and Vegetables They’re often cheaper . . . MORE nutritious . . . more convenient . . . and (my own, fourth, bonus reason) you’re less likely to waste them, the way I sometimes find myself having to throw out stuff that went bad before I got around to eating it.
Total Power, Harvard, DOGE, Puts, And A Dead Outlaw April 15, 2025April 15, 2025 What Hannah Arendt saw in Hitler’s Germany, we can see in Trump’s America As a descendant of German immigrants, from college on I devoured histories of the rise of fascism to grasp how the cultured and educated democracy of my great grandparents could succumb so tragically. I never got it; I had an American’s complacency that made Germans’ complicity incomprehensible. Decades later, I do understand. Because it is happening here. Comparing Hitler and the Nazis to Donald Trump and his MAGA movement is of course fraught. Trump’s world war is a bloodless one over trade; his lawless roundups of migrants and domestic enemies aim to deport, not exterminate. And yet the parallels are undeniable. . . . Just as this country’s Republican Old Guard, Germany’s conservative establishment initially thought it could control Hitler, so politicians and business leaders didn’t ostracize or condemn him. But he played them, just as Trump has mastered Republican “leaders,” parlaying his popular appeal and political ruthlessness into total power. Read in full and see if you agree. One thing for sure: He likes violence. Trump and Some of His Cabinet Members Attend U.F.C. Fight in Miami . . . In the second fight, Bryce Mitchell, a vocal supporter of Mr. Trump for many years, was beaten by Jean Silva, a Brazilian. Earlier this year, Mr. Mitchell faced a firestorm of criticism after he praised Adolf Hitler as a “good guy” who “fought for his country.” (In fairness to Mitchell: some believe “Hitler did some good things.“) DOGE GETS IT WRONG Elon Musk now says his group will produce only 15 percent of the savings it promised. But even that estimate is inflated with errors and guesswork. And yet they’ve managed to wreak havoc on everything from Social Security and the V.A. to USAID and the IRS (whose slashed enforcement budget will increase the deficit). His trillion-dollar goal was preposterous from the start. HARVARD GETS IT RIGHT In defiance President Trump, President Garber concludes his letter: We proceed now, as always, with the conviction that the fearless and unfettered pursuit of truth liberates humanity—and with faith in the enduring promise that America’s colleges and universities hold for our country and our world. Worth reading in full . . . and, if you have time, watching Lawrence O’Donnell (from 2:45 to 15:45) remind us what Harvard has done for the world these past 389 years. PUTS A savvy Wall Street currency trader thinks puts are too expensive now and that “we’ll get a rally when he removes or vastly reduces the China tariffs which will happen sooner rather than later.” So maybe wait for that rally and buy them when they’re cheaper. And yet he tells me not to sell my December 2026 DIA 430 puts or my June 2025 SPY puts. (One of you asked which i had bought. Now you know.) He shares my view that there’s a great deal of risk in the market. As you know if you watched yesterday’s Ray Dalio clip. DEAD OUTLAW The thing is: it’s based on a true story. Try not to know any more than that when you go see it. (Well, know that it’s a musical and that there’s no intermission.) I was in the back row of the balcony at last night’s first preview — $48! — and I loved it. DON’T FORGET TO FILE YOUR 2024 TAXES TODAY OR AN EXTENSION . . . AND YOUR FIRST QUARTERLY ESTIMATED 2025 PAYMENT, IF DUE
Governed By Confused Intuition April 13, 2025 Wall Street Journal editorial board member Holman W. Jenkins Jr. — who in the middle of Trump’s first term was paraphrased as saying “Trump can do anything and I’ll support it” — now writes: Trump Wants to Be Impeached Again. It’s already in the cards thanks to his ill-founded trade war, no matter how that war plays out. . . . A future Trump impeachment seemed all but guaranteed by last Wednesday morning. It seems only slightly less likely now. It may even be desirable to restore America’s standing with creditors and trade partners. . . . Mr. Trump’s great achievement was his 2024 re-election, a rebuke to the injustices and insults meted out to him and his fans since 2016, some of which were even real. However, no consensus or even significant coalition exists for trying to force into existence a new American “golden age” with tariffs, which anyway is like asking a chicken to give birth to a lioness. He invented this mission out of his own confused intuition. But if we impeach him, could we please impeach them both? The Vice President says “peasants” and here’s what the Chinese hear (46 seconds). Fareed: “Complexity breeds corruption, and the tariff system is now tailor-made for both.” . . . The India I grew up in was a country riddled with tariffs, high barriers designed to protect the country’s domestic industry and shield it from what was regarded as unfair foreign competition. It produced stagnation, poverty and lots of corruption, thoroughly politicizing the economy. No business of any size in India could survive without a good relationship with the government. When I got to America, I was thrilled to see that most businesses went about their work with little care as to who was in the White House. But now I watch tech pioneers give interviews slavishly extolling Trump’s genius and Wall Street titans race to post North Korea-style congratulations to the president for his brilliance in rescuing the economy from his own actions, and I wonder, what country am I living in? If you saw Ray Dalio on Meet the Press, you know he thinks we could be headed for a global depression. I have the happy gene, but that hasn’t kept me from buying puts.